The present invention relates to a shield tunneling machine that excavates a tunnel or other similar passage while crushing obstacles encountered during excavation.
There has heretofore been known a shield tunneling machine having water jet spray nozzles provided on a cutter head that is provided at the forward end of a shield body in the excavation direction and is rotatable relative to the shield body to excavate a tunnel or the like while crushing obstacles encountered during excavation [see Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication (KOKAI) No. Hei 10-280880].
However, the conventional shield tunneling machine still has a problem to be solved. That is, because the spray nozzles are immovable, it is impossible to properly control the spray nozzles according to the size and configuration of each particular obstacle encountered during excavation, and hence it is difficult to break it into easily removable pieces with high cutting quality.